Moon Township, Pa. - Senior midfielder Kiel Matisz (Stoney Creek, Ontario / Saltfleet) of the Robert Morris University men's lacrosse team was named Capital One Academic All-District First Team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) in a recent announcement by the organization.
As a result of his first-team selection, Matisz will now advance to the Academic All-America ballot.
Matisz becomes the first student-athlete in the young history of the RMU men's lacrosse program to earn academic all-district honors, an award which recognizes the nation's top student‐athletes for their combined performance on the field and in the classroom.
Matisz is one of only five Division I men's lacrosse student-athletes in the nation to claim this honor as he joined fellow competitors from Army, Bucknell, Colgate and Duke. He was also the only double-major among the quintet.
This honor for Matisz is the latest in a string of accomplishments that have recognized his efforts away from the field as well as his on-field exploits. The double major in economics and marketing has compiled a 3.75 cumulative grade-point average at Robert Morris. He is the reigning Northeast Conference (NEC) Men's Lacrosse Scholar-Athlete of the Year honoree and was also selected as a national finalist for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award in April. Matisz, who is also minoring in sociology, has made the Dean's List in every semester at RMU.
Matisz was named as both a semifinalist for the Tewaaraton Award, college lacrosse's national player of the year award, as well as NEC Player of the Year in leading the Colonials to their first-ever league title. He had his best offensive season in a Colonial uniform in his final campaign with the squad as he has tallied a single-season school record 64 points in just 15 games on the strength of 40 goals and 24 assists. He currently sits sixth nationally in points per game (4.27), 10th in goals per game (2.67) and 29th in assists per game (1.60). He became just the fourth Colonial ever to score 40 goals in a season and also finished third in single-season assists at RMU. Matisz converted on a career-high 45.5 percent of his shots, which helped him produce 13 consecutive multi-point games to finish the season. Matisz tied RMU's single-game school record of five assists, which had only been achieved twice previously at RMU, en route to a career-high eight points April 21. Matisz produced two of his best performances against a pair of squads that both reached the NCAA Quarterfinals this season. He netted six points (3g, 3a) against Denver before following that up by notching seven points (6g, 1a) against Colgate.
Matisz, who was also named NEC Offensive Player of the Year, took home his third consecutive first-team all-conference honor in 2012. He finished his career second in all-time points (166) at Robert Morris, fourth in career goals (94) and second in all-time assists (72). He had 14 career hat tricks along with 41 multi-point games and 26 multi-goal games over his four years.
Since men's lacrosse does not have a distinct Academic All-America program, Matisz was one of 15 student-athletes from various sports named to the Men's At-Large First Team in District II.
The men's at-large program consists of 12 sports that do not have their own programs, including ice hockey, swimming and golf. District II encompasses schools in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Matisz was one of only two male student-athletes from the NEC to be named Academic All-District At-Large in any district.
RMU registered a program-record 11 wins in 2012, including running through NEC play undefeated to claim the conference's regular-season title. The Colonials knocked off a pair of nationally-ranked squads during the campaign and are currently leading the nation in scoring offense at 14.33 goals per game.
